Tuna population slowly decreasing

Brian Kumasi, Oceanic Fisheries Programme Fisheries Technician in an interview said that the population of the Bigeye and Yellowfin are slowly decreasing due to bad fishing practices.“There is a concern because of the high number of small fish being catch and these small fish that they caught don’t go out to reproduce that’s the main concern that this project is trying to address,” Kumasi said.Tony Lewis, the project coordinator said that the number of the fish being catched somehow affected the tuna population.He said Bigeye and Skipjack are very valuable stocks and very expensive in Japan.Lewis said the tuna tagging in the Western and Central Pacific helps them to better understand and manage the tuna resources.He said the tagging will provide better information on fishery exploitation rates and population sizes in the Western and Central Pacific.Data will allow the improvement of regional stock assessment for the three species. Every tagged tuna will have a yellow, green or orange Dart tag on its back, near the second dorsal fin. Each tag has a number and the words “SPC NOUMEA-REWARD-www.spc.int/tagging.”Lewis said most of the tags are just plastic tags and has smaller number of computer type that records information.He said there is a reward for each tag. $10 for the yellow dart tag called fork length tag, $50 for the green acoustic tag and $250 for the orange archival tag.Acoustic tags are used to study the movement of tuna around FADs, payaos and other floating objects while archival tag are small computers that record depth, inside and outside temperature, position and time.Lewis said information for the tuna tagging reward are distributed in 15 different languages that include Filipino and Cebuano dialect.Lewis reminded the public to be careful when cutting the archival tag out from the fish.Avoid pulling the antenna when removing the tag from the fish. Wash the tag and keep it in a dry place and send it back with the finder’s name and address to John Hampton, Oceanic Fisheries Programme, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, B.P. D 5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia or at any local government fisheries office.